Just as soon as it began, the light burns out. The memories of its blazing brightness swing before your vision despite your eyes being shut.

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Slowly, the light returns. Seeping in through your eyelids. Penetrating your pupils. Bleeding to the back of your skull. But this light is different; it is not blinding. It does not hurt. It is a warm flickering - a dancing redness. An indication of a world beyond your face. You open your eyes.

A beautiful woman is dancing. She turns, and her outfit flutters beautifully around her, shimmering. The dips and flows of her movements remind you of a liquid, but she is upright, her hands pointed towards the sky. She stands on the end of a smooth, wax cylinder. Balanced perfectly on a single leg. An ode to beauty, to life, and to destruction. You breathe, and she disappears.

Darkness again.

This time, the light you see is of the sun. It is morning. You are awake.

And yet you feel as though you are still asleep. Is this real? You do not recognise your surroundings. You are lying on a blanketed wooden cot. It does not appear foldable. Next to you, there is an end table, with an unlit candle in a simple wooden stand. In fact, almost everything is wooden. Wherever you are, wood must be cheap and easily available. The room reminds you of an ant burrow. Claustrophobic. Tight. Alleviating that, you are alone. Still, it does little to give any sense of space. You can smell dust as thick as a morning dew, and there are cobwebs in the corners of the room that light just doesn't reach. There is a window on the wall behind the cot's headrest. Though there is what can only be described as an attempt at shutters on the window, your skin feels warm as drops of sunlight are mottled across your arms. There is a door opposite the window, well-hung on its hinges. It appears sturdy, almost as a contrast to the shutters. It's even a little foreboding.

Actually, nevermind your surroundings. Who are you? You despair; surely you could not have forgotten something as basic to your identity as your name. Your memory groans into gear, as though unused for many years. You start with the basics.

So guys - I decided I wanted to try something out. It is essentially a game, so it goes in forum games, even though the quality of the posts will hopefully be higher than the norm in this forum.

The general function of this game is as follows:

You - all of you - are the protagonist. The protagonist's decisions and identity are wholly dependent on your consensus.

If five people want the protagonist to, for example, leave the room he's in through the door, and three want him to leave through the window (what why would that even be a suggestion) - he will leave through the door.

Basically, consider it an unlimited choose-your-own-adventure, or something. I don't know. I'm just the writer here.

The setting is a kind of generic fantasy thing. I really have very little of this planned out in order to allow for extreme flexibility. For this reason, you might have to be very patient at times.

Because I have no idea what this is going to turn out like I am going to lay down some ground rules:

Make your suggestions in

an arbitrary colour of your choice, so long as it is obviously not black (I am not going to hit 'quote' just to make sure you didn't use color=#000001 or something). This ensures, to me, you would have at least read the first post!

Ridiculous suggestions will be considered. Out of character suggestions will not be considered. You create the character initially, but once you have a personality rolling, y'all gotta stick with it.

Do not clutter the topic with pictures! That's my job. But seriously, try to keep your posts down only to suggestions and discussion.

So, as the intro says - let's start with the basics.

Who are you?I need a name and a general (up to as detailed as you like, but at least general) description of your appearance. Obviously this includes you deciding gender!

I don't know how much attention this is going to get. I hope it actually gets something.

the color rule actually gives those who usually type in a color the ability to ignore the first post.

and I say we're named Joseph Reginald Santini and we are a caucasian white-haired female (yes, a female named Joseph, deal with it) with the arms of a gorilla and legs of a were-wolf. and a beard.

and she's wearing a beautiful dress, but underneath that is a tuxedo.

_________________I'm a shape-shifter. I'm currently in whatever form I feel likeParadigm Shift by meI do not actually believe any of what I'm saying.RP character sheets

Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:52 pm

Ebly

Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:01 amPosts: 4246Location: Imagination!

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

RandomGeekNamedBrent Wrote:

the color rule actually gives those who usually type in a color the ability to ignore the first post.

Sure, but that list of people is pretty small!

Or maybe I should force everyone to do my thing of small font, hmm? *snickers*

Naw I think colour's fine, it also lets me kind of zoom in on suggestions.

_________________I was going to make a joke but then I did.

Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:58 pm

exranio

Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:44 amPosts: 1147

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

I agree with making it a women. I enjoy my strong female protaganist. She shall be named Valefor Eidolon. She has short brown hair. Golden eyes. Pale skin. 5'9. She wears a long white dress.. Or that's my idea for her anyway.

Hmm... a guy. We're a guy. A guy with short, slightly spiky hair and green eyes! I'd say we're a very light skinned fellow, but with dark hair of some kind. Clothing isn't clean cut, more casual and messy...

Oh, and fantasy, huh? Fine, for the heck of it, we've got...hmm...

Ah, I've got it. Horns on our head of some kind. Maybe dragon, maybe demon, maybe ox, maybe if there was such a thing as cat horns, we'd have those.

As for a name, maybe we don't recall that. Maybe we'll just make one up for now until we can find our real one.

We have long, pointed, elf-like ears running along the side of our and a thick, long tail. Our eyes are a deep grey which could pierce through the soul of even the greatest of heroes and greatest of villains. Our hands end in five claw-tipped fingers while our feet are like that of many animals, digitigrade, they also end in five claw-tipped digits. From our back grows a set of decidedly dragon like wings with small 'claws' at their middle joints like a bat. With these we fly and may grab at things. To protect ourselves, our entire body is covered in strong, black/grey scales. Under which, organs which make us function provide for survival in most any environment, we may breathe water with the same ease as the air around us, and spit fire as any other dragon-like creature may choose to do. Despite these dragon inspired traits, we are humanoid and bipedal.

To keep us functioning, we need carbon, lots and lots of carbon. As a result, upon our back, between our wings sits a ragged and torn backpack containing many useful things of the modern era, several small electronic devices. Besides these however, is a bag of charcoal as would be used to cook on a grill. It is sweet to us, almost like candy and it provides a key source of energy. It is especially useful to our precious fire.

As odd however, of a creature as we are, we attempt to blend in. Our clothes somewhat fit the current trends, but are torn in many places, burned in others and offer very little in the way of protection from the elements. It is a good thing we have scales. On this note: any attempt to wear shoes has failed and has long since been given up on. We are trying to fit in, but will not stand failure so many times. To the brighter side, these clothes do still serve a purpose. Inside the pants pockets can be find a small pocket knife and solder. Inside our coat there is another knife as well, a combat knife which has served us well. Within the other pockets are various elements of carbon and some items of magic.

We are Divary, a dieing species. We are known among the humans as Nico a male name among the humans which seems to fit us, though a few may know our name of origins. It is a secret to us, our precious secret for few to know.

Things slowly clunk into place. You sit up and groggily hold your face in your hands, with your head bent over. You are still very tired, but you doubt you're going to get much more sleep with the sun up.

Your hair lightly brushes against the back of your hands, but no further. It is too short to reach. You pull it back behind your ears and lean your head back, letting your back and neck soak up the golden drops of sunlight from behind. Perhaps your pale skin may even darken a little. You stand, with your hair falling forwards again into a cropped bob, and take stock of yourself. You are wearing a long, ornate white dressing gown. You wonder why you would be dressed so extravagantly after having just woken up, and especially why you would be so well-dressed in what is clearly not an upper-class location. You suppose those are questions you will have to find the answers to later. As for a more mundane check-up: Your entire body is toned. You are a little self conscious of this – you would even say you have gorilla arms. Still, the strength is useful. You remember always being the first to climb trees as a child with your friends – though those friends are but wraiths in your mind now.

The worst part about you is your name.

It doesn't help being boyish. Already, you cringe – you have short hair. You are strong. You swear if there were any more testosterone in your system you would have dark hairs sprouting from your chin. You wonder if your masculinity may be some form of nominative determinism. After all, your name...

...is Joseph.

Honestly, what kind of horrible parent names their little girl 'Joseph'? You postulate they may have been trying to name you 'Josephine' but messed up... somehow. You have experienced hell for your name. Your memory is not clear enough to see who you suffered at the hands at, but your name is something that has plagued you your entire life. Let's just say that you introduce yourself as 'Jo'.

Your last name, on the other hand, you prefer to keep a secret - as an element of mystery, perhaps. You don't think it should be very important to people. Having more than one name is impractical. You don't know any other girls named Joseph. You think that should be quite enough to identify you.

You don't know why you thought you could have possibly forgotten who you were; that was silly.

Since you're standing, the room seems even smaller. The width of the cot takes up a third of the room alone. On the other side is a closet. It is empty. It appears your dressing gown is your only clothing. Similarly, there is nothing under your bed. You haven't exactly checked every nook and cranny, but you feel confident there are no belongings in here. You don't know what stuff you had in the first place. Maybe you showed up like this. Either way, you would much rather leave the room than keep looking. The roof is oppressive. If you stood on the cot your head would hit it. You're not even all that tall. Taller than most women, but not exactly behemothic.

The door is heavy-set, but clearly unlocked. The shutters on the open-air window shudder as a breeze pushes its way through, delicately toying with your hair. It is a little cold, and it is very fresh. With a breeze smelling like that, you must either be near running water, or rain is threatening to fall. You still have no idea where you are, but if you could venture a guess on a local scale, this is an inn. You hear no footsteps or voices, but there is light birdcall.

so after getting a gender tie and annoying people to come in and break the gender tie we had... ... ... a gender tie.

but i suppose that archy didn't really give an actual gender, just that we 'take on a male name among the humans'

So let's see here:

- Absolutely insane suggestion for someone that sounds a lot like Grape but with an afro and freaky eyebrows (and actually being a guy, too).- A girl that might as well be a guy, with gorilla arms and werewolf legs?- Strong, short-haired girl with a long white dress. Pale skin, brown hair.- Some horned guy with short hair. Light skin, dark hair.- Female gelatinous blob- Male-named divary... thing. Like the concept.

Thus:- Absolute majority opt for male name- Out of those who were overt about their gender choice, absolute majority opt for female

You guys are weirdos.

Anyway, everyone came up with their own thing, so I kind of had to combine your characters to come up with this girl.

Open the door and peek out. Perhaps make like you had a hangover if there's people around and ask what you did last night. See if you can figure out where you are, and what you're doing there. If anything seems suspicious, (or life threatening) get back to the room, and out the window you go!

Yeah! Because on the roof you can see all your surroundings and with gorilla arms that shouldn't be too hard...right?

_________________I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every single minute of it.

Sun Jul 17, 2011 3:08 am

Ebly

Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:01 amPosts: 4246Location: Imagination!

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

Quote:

Of course! The chimney! That's the perfe-- wait there's no fireplace in here, what were you thinking. This room is full of wood, why would someone have a fireplace!

Your eyes are drawn to the door, and then the window. You are starting to notice just how heavy-set the door actually is. It may be unlocked, but it still looks like something out of a mine. Its hinges are iron, and the planks are dark and thick. If not for being an internal door, which you conclude from glimpsing another room through the insignificant gaps, it would surely let almost no light through. The shutters on the window are in ill-repair, as you noticed earlier, and would do nothing to prevent the room from the elements. You mentally combine these facts with the gown you are wearing and the state of the rest of the room, as well as the grand sum of nothing you can remember.

From this, you can conclude three things.- Those who own this place are not well-moneyed.- You might be well-moneyed.- You need to get out of here without being seen.

Though you hear nobody, you don't trust going through the rest of whatever building you're in. You could be heard, you could be seen, many things could go wrong. You can't possibly risk that. It is clear the only logical course of action is to go through the window.

You mosey on up to it and grunt under your breath, flexing your gorilla-like arms. It may seem shoddy, but worse-looking things have been stronger before. You grasp on as firmly as possible to as much as possible, and test the strength of the shuttering with a careful lean.

It takes you until you land on your back to realise they really are as flimsy as they look. Also, you now have a bit of a headache.

After ripping out the rest of the boards, you can feel a light mist on your face. It must be raining or something. You suppose the shutters really did protect from the elements, at least partially. You suspect they would do nothing in a torrential downpour.

You cast one final gaze over the room. Ha! Nobody will be cooking THIS goose! You have absolutely no idea why someone would cook you but it seems like an appropriate thing to say. You are keen to leave this den, and you vault yourself out the window.

You don't hit the ground.

Maybe you should have looked before you leapt.

As you fall, you shift your weight so you turn on your back. You realise that it is an inn - and that it was on a cliff bordering vast waters. Oops.

Good decision, guys! It's always nice to go for a swim in the morning.

Anyway, yes indeed I am taking suggestions mid-fall. Perhaps you would like her to fall in a more manly style? Or perhaps you'd prefer to be sensible and suggest as to what she should do when she lands, which is my intention.

Exranio: when seconding, chuck yourself a colour! *giggles* Seriously though just click anything on the list to the right, I don't care if it's ugly

_________________I was going to make a joke but then I did.

Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:06 am

zeldakeeper

Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 5:38 pmPosts: 339

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

Okay,falling...um...I think Jo should try to grab on to something, see in my country (they might be there in America too) we have these things sticking out of the window, like...um ledges, I can stand on mine, but if the character's huge she might not able too

_________________I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every single minute of it.

We're making Jo a suspicious and analytical person, most likely insecure and thoughtful, untrusting of people.

flail the YMCA as we fall, then swim around the cliffs to the nearest beach, approaching the shore cautiously and carefully, still not wanting to be seen.

Also weird and unpredictable.

_________________bwah bwah

Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:18 am

Ebly

Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:01 amPosts: 4246Location: Imagination!

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

You are making Jo suspicious and insecure, yes, but analytical remains to be seen! Her spontaneity and propensity to occasionally miss the obvious might go against being analytical - nobody thought to make her look out of the window first, after all!

_________________I was going to make a joke but then I did.

Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:31 am

Psykeout

Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:15 pmPosts: 4579Images: 1

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

Ebly Wrote:

You are making Jo suspicious and insecure, yes, but analytical remains to be seen! Her spontaneity and propensity to occasionally miss the obvious might go against being analytical - nobody thought to make her look out of the window first, after all!

Gets wrapped up in her ideas, then. Once she had analyzed the situation and come to the conclusion that jumping out the window was best, she was set on that idea.

_________________bwah bwah

Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:34 am

Ebly

Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:01 amPosts: 4246Location: Imagination!

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

Psykeout Wrote:

Ebly Wrote:

You are making Jo suspicious and insecure, yes, but analytical remains to be seen! Her spontaneity and propensity to occasionally miss the obvious might go against being analytical - nobody thought to make her look out of the window first, after all!

Gets wrapped up in her ideas, then. Once she had analyzed the situation and come to the conclusion that jumping out the window was best, she was set on that idea.

YMCA dance, directly into a swan dive. then swim to the nearest shore.

_________________I'm a shape-shifter. I'm currently in whatever form I feel likeParadigm Shift by meI do not actually believe any of what I'm saying.RP character sheets

Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:39 am

Ebly

Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:01 amPosts: 4246Location: Imagination!

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

Quote:

As you fall with finality towards the waters below, you can think of only one thing to do. You fling your arms out behind your head, angling them away from each other. You pull your legs in together, forming a flat beam with your body - that is, of course, split by your arms. You take a deep breath. The mist of the waters as waves break on and caress the rocks of the cliff fill your lungs, but you cannot do anything about that. You just accept the water along with the air, filling your lungs, and beginning to scream "YYYYYYyyyyyyyyy--"

You hit the water with an immense slapping sound. Immediately you are winded. Additionally, the headache you had from hitting the floor in the room has nothing on this. Pain shoots through your body, with needles skewering your chest and your skull. You can feel your back welting.

You guess there wasn't enough time to do the full routine and a swan dive.

Still, the drop was luckily not massive, and as much as you are in pain, it is bearable. You don't have much time to think, being winded, but you hack, cough, and splutter your way towards the cliff rocks. The waves are large enough to break on the rocks, but the current is not so strong for you to be swept along. It is positively freezing in the water. The wind is a terrible sea breeze now, and though your hair is wet, it is picked up by it and strewn across your face. Those shutters - they actually did protect from the mist, and the wind. They really must not have been as shoddy as you thought they were.

You finally grapple on to the rocks, and spend a little time regaining your breath. You look up. The cliff hangs over you. Good. Even if they heard you, they wouldn't be able to see you now. Maybe they'd assume you drowned, or something. Whoever 'they' are supposed to be. You still don't have an answer for that one.

Oh crap. Your white gown is wet.

You blush furiously.

Unfortunately, it's clear you have no other options. You look out across the water. It seems calm in the distance. You wonder how the waves get so much larger as thy get closer to shore. You see nothing. It gets foggy in the distance, but you doubt you could make it to where the fog is anyway, so there's no land out there to go to. The only land anywhere is what you are on. There is a beach around the corner that you glimpsed as you fell, and you are pretty sure there is nobody there, but you can't be certain. What if someone saw you? But there's nothing else to do. You make your way towards the sand. As you round the cliff, you crouch, hoping you will avoid detection. The bottom of your gown catches on a rock without you noticing, and rips. Great. So you're showing off a little bit more leg now; you suppose that's fine, but you don't like it. Your legs are way too muscly in your eyes, like there are tree roots growing through them. You're incredibly embarrassed of them.

You finally get to the shore, scuttering behind rocks. You peer out, ready to scream and run or attack whoever may be there.

In fact screaming feels like a very good idea.

You scream and leap out from behind the rock, battle stance on for ease of running or fighting, whichever you have to do.

...Some birds fly away.

Well. You are alone on the beach, and there still seems to be no activity in the inn on top of the cliff, but you suppose you're not really close enough to be sure – you'd have to find your way up the cliff again if you wanted to check it out in any more detail.

At the very least, you're glad nobody can see your wet gown. The material clings to your form, and the wind serves only to make the cold gown colder. This really was not a good idea. You sneeze.

Okay so, I have not described this new external scene very much at all. Why? Okay, well, we already know that behind us is a vast ocean/sea/whatever lots of water. Next to us is a cliff with an inn on it. We are on a beach. The rest we have no idea. We haven't looked around properly yet. I'll give you a better idea of where you are in the next update, I just want to get something happening already. Maybe she goes back to the inn for some reason. Maybe she tears off down the beach flapping her arms like wings and screaming chicken sounds. Maybe she resolves to prowl through some grasslands somewhere like a lion, and it is now her life's quest to find an appropriate grassland to prowl in. (Actually she would be too worried about someone seeing her for those last two things.)

Zeldakeeper: Ledges are things that exist, yes, but she vaulted herself out the window, presumably expecting there to be ground to land on. She was too far out to be able to grab on to anything!

Okay, we have a wardrobe malfunction. And it seems we don't like it; we had better get some new clothes on the double quick before someone sees us, or find somewhere to hide while we scout this place out. But do we buy clothes? Steal them? Heck, do we have the skill to make our own from materials in the area around us? ...

Uh, okay, first let's find a safe place to hide so we can observe the area and figure out where we could go for clothes. We can always go back to the inn to find clothes if we can't find any other options.

_________________I'm a shape-shifter. I'm currently in whatever form I feel likeParadigm Shift by meI do not actually believe any of what I'm saying.RP character sheets

Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:03 pm

Psykeout

Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:15 pmPosts: 4579Images: 1

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

I say we need to get our bearings first. look around. We don't want to be seen, though.

At some point in the future, we probably want to figure out where we are.

_________________bwah bwah

Mon Jul 18, 2011 5:05 pm

Ebly

Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:01 amPosts: 4246Location: Imagination!

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

Quote:

The first priority is simple. Don't be seen. That's always imperative. No matter how strong you may be, avoiding confrontation should always take precedent. You duck back into the groove of the cliff to avoid potential prying eyes from the inn, and attempt to wedge yourself behind a rock. It doesn't really work, but you feel safe, if slightly odd-looking to anyone who may notice you. You suppose hiding on the side of a cliff is a difficult thing to do.

You congratulate yourself for not being totally conspicuous. After all, you've only jumped out a window once, yelled pointlessly twice, and found out just how fast you have to be traveling to make water feel very much like a solid. The ability to be hidden after all that is truly incredible. Of course, so far it seems like there's been nobody around to find you, but maybe you can hide from those birds you scared off earlier. You cast your eyes across the beach.

Attachment:

scene.png [ 13.61 KiB | Viewed 7778 times ]

Well, the birds don't look like they'll be coming back any time soon.

The terrain is mostly flat, but the horizon is interrupted by mountains. While rocky, the closer one appears low. Even its slopes seem gentle. The only part of it that makes it look mountainous is how simply barren it is. More distant there is another mountain, beginning gradual but ending in steep cliffs to a crest of embalmed ice and snow. Besides that, the beach abruptly ends, with grassland punctuated by the occasional tree extending into the distance. There are no clouds, so clearly it was never going to rain. The mist was all from the apparent ocean nearby.

There are absolutely no residences in sight. No cities, no farmland, nothing. If there is a community anywhere, it is behind you. However, you suspect the inn is an isolated residence. This only serves to make you more suspicious. They could get away with pretty horrible things in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps you should skip on the clothing and just run, but even then, there's no apparent place to go.

A voice seeps into your ears, barely forcing the distance through the harsh wind."Hello? We heard you yelling, whoever you are! Are you okay? We're sending help down," it calls. It is too quiet to tell the gender, but you don't care about that. What you do care about is that there are people here, you were obviously not very good at keeping undiscovered, and you have absolutely no idea what their intentions are - can you trust their 'help' to actually be help?

well that took, what, 10 minutes to draw? i'm almost a little surprised with how easy it is to incorporate visual aid, but seriously, don't expect it to be anything but the bare basics. it's an aid, not a feature.

sometimes i wish i could suggest for my own game, but that would be cheating!

_________________I was going to make a joke but then I did.

Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:46 pm

Psykeout

Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:15 pmPosts: 4579Images: 1

Re: Consider this a test... Come in and SUGGEST

Stay hidden. Make sure you see the help(?) before they see you. then make a judgement. run behind a tree if necessary.

Quickly build a very rough sand castle to hid behind, making sure to leave a peephole for to peep out of, you're wary of these people. Carry one of the rocks with you in case this turns violent and/or you need to present a gift in order to avoid cannibalization.

Jump on the rock, squawk like a chicken, and take a dump (And you can't do that because it's in black!)

Hide from the voice, and attempt to distance yourself from it's source as far as possible without being seen

_________________DOH HO HO WELL THEN

Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:34 pm

Sleet

Bringing Foxy Back

Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:32 amPosts: 16891Location: Nephelokokkygia

Re: Ronrider ris a rest... Rome in rand RUGREST

CaptainPea Wrote:

Quickly build a very rough sand castle to hid behind, making sure to leave a peephole for to peep out of, you're wary of these people. Carry one of the rocks with you in case this turns violent and/or you need to present a gift in order to avoid cannibalization.

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